It is increasingly apparent that the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church is the only real, living, alternative to a world of unreality, of slavery to technocratic systems of control, and of tyranny sanctioned as the order of the day.
Our Pope took the name “Leo” to honor that great Leo XIII, who confronted the “new thing” of his age: industrialism. Our new Leo faces a world of AI-powered screens, a world like and unlike the industrialism that stirred Catholic Social Teaching into action. How to be holy now? How to enact justice and peace in an age in which humanity seems to have been dethroned, and people are offered little more than the chance to live miserable, addicted, stunted lives in the midst of apparently superior technologies?
Catholic Social Teaching is the answer. It is “the way” because it is nothing other than the teaching of God, the way, the truth, and the life. But it has not been articulated in response to the present moment. We are doing just that.
Here, at New Polity, we are thrilled to announce a theme of thought, a direction to our work. We could say “Make Catholic Social Teaching Great Again,” but that would be too trite. The point is to make it present, real, and hard as nails—a foundation for unashamed, Christian hope.
It is our conviction that the foundational statement of Catholic Social Teaching is this: “All Power ought to be used for the Common Good.” A proposal for sanctifying the world is a proposal for the right use of power. That the Church, and the laity in a special way, ought to become powerful, is presupposed by this statement.
We are partnering with Word on Fire to publish a book by Andrew Willard Jones and Alex Denley, explicating this principle of Catholic Social Teaching and so illuminating all of it for the present age. Andrew and Alex will also begin a podcast which follows the major themes of the book: subsidiarity, authority, property, freedom, the common good, and so on—each theme grounded in the encyclical tradition and developed in the light of the present moment.
Finally, we invite you to join us in Steubenville, Ohio for a Catholic Social Teaching masterclass, a four-day intensive course taught by Dr. Andrew Jones, Alex Denley, myself (Marc Barnes), Michael Boland, and Dr. Jacob Imam. This plunge into the Catholic “way” will cover the essential topics of Catholic social doctrine. It is tailored for professionals in politics, law, and finance, as well as teachers, DRE’s, priests, and interested laypeople. (This course is offered in collaboration with the College of St. Joseph the Worker. Participants will receive three college credits from the College and can use those credits for continuing education.)
All of this is needed, and all of this requires money. Please: donate to New Polity to support these programs and to provide scholarships for the masterclass.
New Polity has spent the past six years engaging actively in the discussions that are roiling the political landscape. We have explored tyranny, integralism, gender, neo-Nietzscheanism, contemporary economics, populism, technology, city planning…if it is a political concern among the Catholic laity, we have spent significant time thinking about it, writing about it, and talking about it.
What is more, New Polity’s approach to these concerns is demonstrably effective, especially among young men. Young men in the United States are in a state of dissatisfied confusion. They do not know what to think or even what they want—but they know they despise the status quo. The old taboos and political pieties that were constructed after the Second World War have virtually no hold on them. They are largely open to any and all alternatives.
This is both an exciting and a dangerous situation. It is among this group that integralism, neo-reaction, ethno-nationalism, neo-paganism, militaristic populism, even, tragically, outright Nazism has found fertile ground. It is this group that has embraced MAGA-style populism most enthusiastically. But it is also this group that Catholic traditionalism has gained the most ground: back to the land movements, localism, intentional communities, and similar, radical communitarian movements have become commonplace. What all this has in common is a rejection of the post-War consensus and of the social realities of late liberalism. Young people are searching for the Church, not as nuance to some secular idea about the social order, but as the soul, the form, the heart, and the very mission of the world.
This is the plan for this book. This is the plan for the podcast. This is the plan for the master class. We want to give Catholics the resources they need to reject the status quo because of Christ and not to foolishly lump Christ in with the status quo that they are right to reject. Please help us in this effort by donating to New Polity.
